LOGINMERRY CHRISTMAS đđ¤
I've been staring at this screen trying to figure out how to say what I want to say without sounding like a Hallmark card lol... but here goes.
Thank you.
Like genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Do you know what it feels like to be a small author? It feels like shouting into the void and hoping someone hears you. It feels like putting pieces of your soul into a story and wondering if anyone will care. It feels like refreshing your stats at 3am just to see if one more person clicked.
And then you showed up.
You clicked. You read. You stayed. You voted. You commented. You added my book to your library like it mattered.
And to me? That's everything.
That's you saying "I see you and I pick you." Out of all the books on this app, you picked mine. Do you know how insane that is? How grateful I am?
So here's my Christmas wish... if this book has made you feel something, anything... would you leave me a review? đĽşđ
It doesn't have to be perfect. Just real. Just you and your thoughts and your words. Tell me what you loved, what you hated, what made you scream into your pillow lol. I want to hear it all.
Reviews are how other readers find me. But more than that... hearing from you reminds me why I do this.
Merry Christmas, loves. You're making my dreams come true and you don't even know it đ¤
â Remi đ¤
EMBERâS POVMy heart twists in my chest.Because of my mother, I always viewed my capacity to love, to forgive, and to unlearn as my absolute greatest flaw.I hated being the kindest person in the room, because it usually meant being the first one taken advantage of.But why should I bear the burden of other peopleâs cruelty? Why should I crush the one thing most of the world has entirely lost?If there is one thing I know for certain now, it is that some people are worth the extra mile. They are worth the second chance, the kindness, and the forgiveness. It isnât naivety anymore.My heart finally knows the difference between shrinking down just to please others, and standing firm in my truest, kindest self.âI donât know what happened between you and Knox in ZĂźrich,â I say. âHe didnât tell me and I didnât ask, because whatever passed between you two belongs to you, not to me. But I know that something you said or did in those hours is the reason that man shifted on a tarmac and ran a
EMBERâS POVQueenieâs hand tightens on Rayanaâs so hard I can see the knuckles whiten.âNo. No, no, no. You told everyone six months. You SAID six months, Rayana.ââSix months was the number from three months ago. The disease didnât get the memo about pacing itself, and my body has been less than cooperative with the âfighting itâ part of the programme.â She looks between us and the smile she attempts doesnât land anywhere near where she aimed it. âDr. Patel used the phrase âaggressive trajectory,â which is medical speak for âstart saying your goodbyes.â And that was twelve days ago. So whateverâs left of those two weeks isâŚâ She waves her free hand vaguely. âNot two weeks.ââDays,â I say, and my voice comes out smaller than I want it to. âYouâre talking about DAYS.ââIâm talking about whatever the âaggressive trajectoryâ has left me, which at this point is less of a timeline and more of a countdown.â She looks at Queenie, who is crying silently with both hands wrapped around Rayanaâs
EMBERâS POVI look at Queenie. Queenie looks at me.Neither of us has an answer because the truth is that in the chaos of the Bacchanalâs aftermath â the heat, the compound, the rescue, everything that followed â nobody stopped to check.Queenie laughs.It comes out high and tight and hollow.âOkay, come on. Youâre both scaring me right now and Iâm not doing this.â She waves her ice cream cup like a tiny plastic shield against the direction this conversation has taken. âRafael is not alive. He simply CANâT be alive. We barely made it out of that lodge in one piece, Rayana. Ember was drugged, I was terrified, Knox went full wolf and tore through that man like he was made of paper. You want me to believe that someone survived THAT and is just what, recovering quietly somewhere while we all frolic around Alaska having ice cream?ââQueenieâââNO. I refuse to accept it. Think about it logically.â She holds up a finger. âIf Rafael was alive, why wouldnât he have come for us already? We slep
EMBERâS POVWe eat terrible ice cream in Rayanaâs hospital bed. Three women, three plastic cups, and the steady beep of a heart monitor keeping time like a metronome.And the conversation that follows is the most honest Iâve had with anyone other than Knox.Rayana starts it. She puts her ice cream down and looks at me, and the performative energy drains from her face like water from a tub.Whatâs left is just a woman in a hospital bed who needs to say something that has been sitting on her chest for weeks.âI owe you an apology,â she says. âAbout Rafael.âI go still. Queenie goes still.âI brought him into your life. I co-signed that trip. I sat in his living room and drank his champagne and listened to him talk about fate and mate bonds, and I thought he was charming and romantic and I INTRODUCED you to his personal orbit.â She swallows. âHe told me things, Ember. About his beliefs about you. About his obsession with the idea that you were his fated mate. And I thought it was sweet.
EMBERâS POVI look at Knox, and the look that passes between us is the kind that makes other people uncomfortable.It is loaded with private language, inside jokes, the shared history of a thousand terrible moments and a handful of perfect ones.He rolls his eyes in a way that is so exaggeratedly put-upon that itâs obviously an act, and I blow him a kiss because I can, because heâs mine, because blowing a kiss to the Lycan King in a hospital room while his ex-fiancĂŠe watches is exactly the kind of petty, delicious power move that I have earned the right to make.Knox catches the blown kiss â actually reaches up and closes his fist around the air like heâs grabbing it â and puts it in his jacket pocket.âFor later,â he says.And then he WINKS at me, the bastard, and the wink is so stupidly charming and so deliberately over-the-top that Rayana makes a gagging sound from the bed.âGet OUT,â Rayana says. âYou two are revolting, and Iâm dying, and I donât want my last memories to be the Ly
EMBERâS POVI sit with Maurice for twenty minutes before Knox comes to find me.Twenty minutes isnât long enough for everything I want to say to a man who is lying in a hospital bed with tubes in his arms and machines counting his heartbeats.But twenty minutes is what I have because weâre leaving Alaska today and thereâs a list of things that need doing before we board that plane.Knox has been letting me take my time, but I can feel him hovering in the corridor the way he hovers when heâs being patient against his natural instincts, which is to say: loudly.âIâm going to find her,â I tell Mauriceâs unconscious face. His hand is warm in mine, and the machines beep their steady rhythm.His chest rises and falls softly.âDevika. Iâm going to find her and get every answer you were too scared to chase. About my father, about the suppressants, about the woman with the twin girls and the black car. All of it.âHe doesnât respond. Obviously. But his fingers twitch against mine in a way that
EMBERâS POVThe mattress dips sometime after three in the morning.Iâve been lying here for hours, staring at the ceiling, my mind running circles around the photo of Queenie still burning a hole in my phone.Sleep feels impossible. Every time I close my eyes, I see Rayana bleeding on the marble. S
EMBERâS POVI nod desperately.âLiar.â He pumps into me slowly, his thumb circling my clit with featherlight pressure thatâs nowhere near enough. âYouâre never quiet. Itâs one of my favorite things about you.ââFor goddess sake, Knox, pleaseâââPlease what?â Heâs smiling now, the bastard. Enjoying
EMBERâS POVâI want to recover here. In this penthouse. Not locked away somewhere safe and isolated.âAnd there it is. The trade sheâs been building toward.I almost laugh.âYou want to stay here,â I repeat slowly. âWith us. With Knox.ââYou heard me. What part of dying donât you seem to understand
EMBERâS POVI stare down at Knox on his knees, my pulse slamming so hard I can feel it between my legs. He's grinning up at me like a wolf who's already tasted blood, gold eyes glowing, fangs just barely peeking past his lip.I fold my arms, pretending my thighs aren't already trembling."What do I







